art: The Islamic World 109 stan to northern India They chose as their capital Ghazni, in southeastern Afghanistan, which became an important center of culture Persian was adopted by intellectuals as the official language Persian books were written during the Ghaznavids’ reign as well as a 273-yard Persian inscription with praises to the sultan carved on a marble panel in the walls of the royal palace courtyard The Ghaznavids spent the cold winter months in al-Askar, a city in southern Afghanistan, chosen for its mild temperature In the interior of the Winter Complex palace, a fresco with a depiction of the sultan’s bodyguards, combined in the upper part with a stucco decoration, has been found During the rule of the Ghaznavids and the Ghurids, the following dynasty (1000–ca 1215), the art of the book flourished Abu Bakr (1165–1240), a famous copyist, is remembered particularly for two Koran books whose scripts were made in gold and inserted on a background of beautiful arabesques The distinctive element of the miniature paintings of this era is the absence of figurative imagery and the presence arabesques Ceramic ewer; Iran, ca 1200–ca 1230 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost, Photograph © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA) A milestone in the history of Islamic art is represented by the Great Seljuks (1038–1194) and the Seljuks of Rum (1077– 1307), who came from the steppes of central Asia In the period of major expansion the Seljuk Empire ran from Anatolia to China The Great Seljuks established their capital in Rayy (close to Tehran, Iran); the Seljuks of Rum chose Konya (Anatolia) as the principal center of their lands The Seljuks introduced new techniques in almost all media Their contribution in pottery innovation is particularly noteworthy The craftsmen employed the frit, a mix of quartz and soda flux, which permitted the creation of beautiful figurines and ewers with animal features in blue The Seljuk ceramists also discovered the expensive technique called minai It consists in the application of colored enamels under or over the colorless glaze of an object The whole piece was put in an oven for a second time in order to fix the colors By adopting this technique, artisans created luxurious bowls with hunting or princely scenes for the wealthy members of the court Peculiar to this period also are star-shaped tiles with single figures, such as animals or birds, with which the walls of private residences were covered Statues made in stucco with lively colors and faience in blue and green tones were very common in building decoration Something absolutely unique in the mosque interior was the use of columns in carved wood The ability of the Seljuk woodcarvers is also revealed in the Koran stands On a particularly special stand, the inner side is painted with lacquer Metalworkers created handsome, dragon-shaped door knockers as well as mirrors Among the most remarkable pieces are those in bronze or copper, enriched with a fine high-relief application of silver and gold The craftsmen were masters in stone and marble reliefs Pairs of angels, seated princes, doubled-headed eagles, and hunting scenes were carved in 20 surviving large stone reliefs from Konya walls One of the panels is especially impressive because it represents a rhino-unicorn running after an elephant and hitting the elephant with its horn The scene came from a famous ancient fable, and it is rarely used to embellish art pieces Among textiles, large carpets occupy a special place because they are the first examples of knotted carpets in the history of Islamic art Seljuk craftsmen also reached high levels of skill in jewelry production, but the majority of the pieces have been lost Some surviving examples of Koran books are finely decorated on the initial and final pages with geometric motifs and arabesques It is documented that both the Great Seljuks and the Seljuks of Rum ordered from the copyists manuscripts decorated with miniature paintings, but only a few copies survive One of those is Warqa Wa Gulshah (Warqa